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The Antigua and Barbuda Government plans to make an offer to the Joint Liquidators of the Stanford Development Company (SDC) for the purchase of the Pavilion Restaurant and seven acres of adjacent land.

This comes out of a meeting of the Cabinet on Wednesday. Reliable sources say the decision to procure the property which sits within the precincts of the V.C. Bird International Airport is influenced by a number of factors……..

Marcus Wide of Grant Thornton (British Virgin Islands) Limited and Hordley Forbes of Forbes and Associates (Antigua) were appointed as Provisional Liquidators of SDC. Within that role, they have taken over the company and are duty-bound to preserve its assets. Further, until further notice, SDC’s former directors’ powers are withdrawn and there is a stay of proceedings in place as to any actions that may be commenced against SDC without a court order.

The next step is likely the resolution of an application to wind up SDC. Though the result is not known, in most instances, the company will transition from provisional liquidation to liquidation at which point a liquidator(s) will be appointed. The role of the liquidators will be to wind up the company and settle all debts.

In the interim, the Provisional Liquidators continue to confer with creditors, the Antiguan government and other interested parties to bring a speedy resolution to SDC’s provisional liquidation by, among other things, paying creditors and getting SDC’s books and records in order. Notably, since a provisional liquidation does not involve a claims process, there is no need to submit a claim at this time.

For further information related to SDC, please see the SDC tab at www.sibliquidation.com for information posted by the Provisional Liquidators.

R. Allen Stanford, the Texas financier convicted last year of leading an investment fraud scheme, was ordered to disgorge more than $6.7 billion by the judge in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge David Godbey in Dallas issued the order yesterday against Stanford, his Stanford Group Co. and the Antigua-based Stanford International Bank Ltd.

The order may clear the way for Godbey to grant a court-appointed receiver’s request to make an interim $55 million payout to investors who lost money after buying certificates of deposit issued by the Stanford Bank.

“The fraud perpetrated was obviously egregious, was done with a high degree of scienter, caused billions in losses and occurred over the course of a decade,” Godbey said, using the legal term to describe the mental state of intent to deceive.

A federal jury in Houston convicted Stanford of lying to investors about how their money was being handled. “The truth is that he flushed it away,” Justice Department lawyer William Stellmach told jurors in his closing arguments at the March 2012 trial. “He told depositors he was using their money in one way and the truth was completely different.”

Stanford, 63, was sentenced to 110 years in prison. Maintaining his innocence, he has appealed the verdict.

Parallel Judgment

Godbey referred to the jury’s guilty finding in granting the SEC’s request he render a parallel judgment in their case filed in February 2009, four months before the financier was indicted. The judge also cited the August 2009 guilty plea by Stanford Group Chief Financial Officer James Davis.

“The court finds that $5.9 billion is a reasonable approximation of the gains connected to Stanford’s fraud,”Godbey said of the sum he would order disgorged. He then added more than $861 million in interest for a total of $6.76 billion Davis too is jointly liable.

Finally the judge imposed a $5.9 billion penalty on Stanford and a $5 million assessment against Davis, who received a five-year prison sentence.

The court-appointed receiver, Ralph Janvey, asked Godbey this month for permission to begin repaying some of the losses incurred by the more than 17,000 claimants. At an April 11 hearing, the judge told Janvey’s lawyer, Kevin Sadler, he was concerned about doing so before a final order had been entered against Stanford.

The SEC case is Securities and Exchange Commission v. Stanford International Bank, 09-cv-00298, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas (Dallas). The criminal case is U.S. v. Stanford, 09-cr-00342, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston).

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Harris in the Chicago federal courthouse at aharris16@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net

Marcus Wide of Grant Thornton (British Virgin Islands) Limited and Hordley Forbes of Forbes and Associates (Antigua) were appointed as the new Joint Provisional Liquidators of SDC by The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, High Court of Justice, Antigua and Barbuda as of April 17, 2013.

With extensive years of combined experience, Wide and Forbes provisional joint appointment represents an important step in the management of SDC in and efficient and effective manner and in the recovery of money for the creditor-victims and the employees and other stakeholders. An urgent component of this liquidation are the past due wages that may be due and ordering the books. Accordingly, the newly appointed Joint Provisional Liquidators’ first call to action is to organize and clarify the past due wages and arrange for prompt payment. We ask the SDC employees and the creditor-victims for patience through the transition as the proper amounts owed are determined and the terms of the appointment order is implemented. The Joint Provisional Liquidators are committed to bringing a prompt resolution to this matter in the most efficient and beneficial manner for the interests of the pertinent stakeholders, including the SDC employees.

Antigua St. John’s – Stanford liquidators have issued a statement following a recently court judgement that found, among other things, that Barbara Streete is not a valid director of the Stanford Development Company (SDC).

A statement issued to Caribarena on Tuesday is reprinted in full below, followed by feedback from SDC attorney Hugh Marshall.

“At first pass it seems that the Court found that the Sun building was leased under market. However, when the judgment is read more closely the Court stops short of finding the lease of the Sun was under market.

The Court also found that SDC had and has no properly appointed Board of Directors. The Court also commented that Ms. Stoelker had no authority to act on behalf of SDC.

The Court went on to specifically find that Barbara Street is not a Director of SDC and directed that she cease and desist from holding herself out as one.

The consequence of this ruling, as noted by the Court, is that no one had the authority to enter into the various sales and leases proposed by SDC.

We also note that while the Court refers to SIB’s claim of $5.6million, the Court did note that SIB had additional claims.

SIB asserted that in fact SDC benefitted from SIB in an amount in excess of $269 million at the expense of the creditors of SIB which is well in excess of the value of the assets of SDC today.

While the Court suggests that SIB has not progressed its claims against SDC, this is attributable to the fact that the Joint Liquidators have not yet been able to obtain a hearing on the substantial issues of our claim.

In the meantime as the Joint Liquidators of SIB we remain frustrated as we watch the attempts to deal with the assets of SDC at undervalue and while having to deal with maneuvers to prevent us from taking those assets into possession to be dealt with properly for the benefit of the creditors of SIB who paid for them.”

SDC attorney Hugh Marshall Jr, who is currently out of state, said he was unaware of a court ruling concerning the former Antigua Sun building, but was aware of a judgment that regarding Streete.

Marshall said reactive legal steps have since been taken to fix the problem. He declined to comment on the Sun building.

ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Former Stanford Development Company (SDC) Director Barbara Street will be appealing a recent and second High Court judgment that SDC has no properly constituted Board of Directors, and therefore she is not a director.

In her ruling, Justice Pearletta Lanns said Street should cease to describe herself as SDC’s director given that “at best, her directorship expired in 2010.”

Apart from challenging the ruling, Street is also appealing a decision of the Registrar of Companies who denied her application to resume directorship of SDC.

“We have filed an application to compel the registrar to act upon the filing because we have made an application to the registrar since last year and she had not responded,” said Hugh Marshall Jr, who is Street’s attorney.

He said directorships expire every year and have to be reappointed.

“We have done that but the registrar has not accepted any of the filings and hasn’t stated why,” he added.

Justice Lanns’ decision arose out of a claim filed by Stanford International Bank (SIB) (acting through its joint liquidators Marcus Wide and Hugh Dickenson).